Bill may rob 80,000 of election say

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The Federal Government was accused yesterday of trying to push through electoral changes that would undermine democracy and see an estimated 80,000 young people and all prisoners denied a vote in the coming election.

The Senate is due to vote this week on the bill, under which the electoral rolls would be closed to people enrolling to vote for the first time the moment a federal election is called. New voters presently have a seven-day window after the campaign begins in which to enrol.

People transferring to a new electorate would be given only three days, rather than a week, to inform the Australian Electoral Commission of a change of address. The AEC estimated this would affect 200,000 people.

The bill is unlikely to pass, with Labor and the Democrats opposed to the change, which goes against the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee.

The Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, said an immediate closure of the electoral roll to new voters would "disenfranchise many young Australians, particularly young Australians, from being able exercise their democratic right on polling day".

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Under a second proposal, all prisoners, regardless of the duration of their sentence, would be prohibited from voting. Presently only prisoners serving a jail sentence of more than five years are not allowed to vote.

The latest figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology indicate the prison population is about 22,500.

Labor says such a move would breach international obligations under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

In a speech to Parliament, the Labor frontbencher Bob McMullan said the proposed change was flawed because it would affect prisoners serving short sentences if their time in prison coincided with an election.

"A person sentenced to eight weeks in jail which coincided with an election period could not vote, yet another prisoner, sentenced to two years in jail which coincided with a favourable electoral cycle, would be able to vote," Mr McMullan said.

The Democrats leader, Andrew Bartlett, said the change would unfairly discriminate against indigenous people, because of their higher incarceration rate.

However the Government, which also wants to increase the disclosure threshold for political donations from $1500 to $3000 as a part of the same package of reforms, defended its proposals.

The Special Minister of State, Eric Abetz, told the ABC: "If you're not fit to walk the streets as deemed by the judicial system in this country, then chances are you're not a fit and proper person to cast a vote .. . "